The Sharing Tower by Vincente Guallart

as an example for the ideological concept of contemporary data-architecture

By:
Ulrich Jacov Becker
Department of Architecture

Name of the course: "Contemporary theories"

Number of course: 7417
Date: August 2009
Handed In to: Prof. Arch. Zvi Efrat (‫)פרופ' אדר' אפרת צבי‬
Department of Architecture
Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design
0. Index

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….Page 1

2. Associative fields………………………………………………………………Page 1

2.1. Hybridization………….….………………………………………………….Page 2

2.2. New Urbanism and Leon Krier…………………………………………….Page 3

2.3. (File) Sharing………………………………………………………………...Page 4

2.4. Narkomfin Block and Social Housing……………………………………..Page 5

2.5. The New Family……………………………………………………………..Page 6

2.6. The European City (Regionalism and Globalism)…………………….....Page 7

2.7. Conservation……………………………………………………………..….Page 8

2.8. The Middle Ages and Nostalgia...…………………………………..……..Page 9

2.9. Urban Landscape and Natural Influences………………………………Page 10

2.10. Responsive Architecture………………………………………………...Page 11

3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………....Page 12

4. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..Page 13

Addendum……………………………………………………………………….Page 15
1. Introduction
The project the Sharing Tower 1 by Vincente Guallart is here presented as the product of a
0F

combination of different associative sources each with their own background, environment,
connections and history. The spreading out of this associative field allows a deep and multi-layered
view on the concepts, ideas and ideologies behind the Sharing Tower and behind the broader
ideology of Guallart and similar thinking contemporary architects.
The Sharing Tower is just one project in the larger urban experiment Sociopólis 2 that was planned
1F

near Valencia, Spain around 2004. Vincente Guallart also created the master plan for Sociopolis.
The project emerges here as an architecture of our time, an architecture of a global and interlinked
age. This is architecture after modernism and post-modernism, which still fights the conflict of an
objective or subjective design approach and tries to derive its triggers out of the computerized data
world, nature, social thinking as well as history.
If and in what way Guallart's maxim that "architecture must thus redefine its aims in the face of the
emergence of the digital world" 3 is true, is put to the test throughout the work.
2F

The work does on purpose not enter into a detailed description of the programme and performance of
the actual project, but tries to enter the associative backgrounds around it. It should just be said that it
is a circular apartment tower which tries to offer its residents – mostly students – a minimal private
space and a larger shared space. Furthermore the tower is connected to various public functions in its
ground floor, including a plaza. Through a careful combination of all-day living objects like tables, TVs,
toilets, etc., Guallart created a matrix of objects and functions that can and can't be shared, and
taking them as a basis, developed different ground plans for each floor with different combinations,
which all have the common idea of surplus in living quantity through different shaped shared spaces.
This work thus tries to show what may lie behind its motives and to which concepts it connects.

2. Associative fields
Of course it is hard to decide with which associative concept to start with, since they are not
necessarily casually determined and are like autonomous items in a picture, although of course there
are connection between them. Also sorting them according to importance would be hard to determine
and maybe even take out interest for the later points.
I will start with a point that Vincente Guallart names by himself as one of the first about his project -
which not necessarily needs to be the most important one:

1
See a model in Addendum 1.
2
See a model of the master plan in Addendum 2.
3
Guallart, Vincente, "MediaMountains&Architecture",
http://www.guallart.com/04mediaMountainsAndArchitecture/default.htm.
1
2.1. Hybridization
On his official website 4 Vincente Guallart prominently speaks of the "hybrid programme" of his project
3F

"that includes 250 rental apartments, an arts centre and a technology centre." 5 4F

It can be observed that the concept of hybridization or "mixed use" as well in the Sociopólis master
plan as in the Sharing Tower is a significant feature of a new data orientated architecture.
Interestingly the reasoning given by Guallart for a hybrid approach comes from an association to
nature. 6
5F

"A neighbourhood or a city is an artificial ecosystem governed by rules similar to those of natural
ecosystems. For example, the more different species exist and the more equality there is between
them, the more balanced, the more balanced and consistent it will be." 7 6F

The city, the neighbourhood and the Sharing Tower itself as well as many other single projects
throughout Sociopólis contain a hybrid programme. 8 But hybrid components are also very present in
7F

other projects by Guallart - as for example the "multifunctional centre" in the Denia Cultural Park. 9 8F

This emphasis can be seen in relation to a current trend towards mixed use and hybrid programmes
of buildings and cities in strong opposition to zoning. Zoning developed on a large scale during the
19th century as a consequence of industrialization and divided the city into areas according to their
use (at the beginning mainly in housing and industrial uses) and thus also the buildings itself had only
one kind of use (e.g. living or manufacturing). There were approaches as the Garden City Movement
(since 1898) and Tony Garnier's Une cité industrielle (1918), who tried to counter negatively felt
developments of industrialization by a new design of the city, based on health or social factors, but
stayed in the pattern of zoning or advanced it even further. Modernism and the urban plans of Le
Corbusier celebrated zoning and the car that often comes with it as a way to urban 'redemption'.
In the sixties, starting with the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs in
1961, theoreticians started to critically rethink zoning, openly oppose it and were now arguing that a
mixture of uses is vital and necessary for a healthy urban area. 10 Guallart openly criticizes the
9F

"typically North-American low-density city" 11 and is thus in company of the co-author Dietmar Steiner,
10F

who confronts the American city, zoning and even the New Urbanism for their middle-class bourgeois
character and sets Sociopólis against them, which will be the hybrid social town of Europe,
emphasizing his trust in the performance of the hybrid "old European town". 12 1F

4
Guallart, Vincente, "Guallart Architects", http://www.guallart.com.
5
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Sharing Tower (2004-2007)",
http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolistower/default.htm.
6
See also 2.9. Urban Landscape and Natural Influences.
7
Guallart, Vincente, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum, Wien, March 2006, p. 23.
8
"In Sociopólis, each building has a hybrid programme…", ibid.
9
Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm.
10
Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961.
11
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart.
12
Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, European City of the Future", Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, Ed. Vincente
Guallart, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum, Wien, March 2006, p. 7. For the European connection see also 2.6. The European
City (Regionalism and Globalism).
2
Guallart's hybrid thinking also connects to several other associative points, as for example 2.9 Urban
Landscape and Natural Influences and 2.4 Narkomfin Block and Social Housing since in many cases
throughout Sociopólis and in the Sharing Tower green, social and historic programmes are part of the
hybrid plan. Diversion is one of the magical words in Guallarts thinking. Diversion of urban and single
house usage, diversion of inhabitants, diversion of floor plans in the tower, diversion of green and city
and so on.
Also the associated architect Izaskun Chinchilla who contributed a theoretical text to the Sociopólis
book sees Sociopólis as a city "heterogeneous in programme and spatial configuration" and praises it
for being a "hybrid of singular pieces". 13 Diversion is seen as a one-kind-fits-all solution to
12F

contemporary architectural problems. In the quote of Guallart above shows, diversity is seen as a
guarantee for balance. It should thus be remembered that the ultimate aim of the project here is
named as balance, while diversity (which could also be understood as the direct opposite of balance)
is only the tool to reach this condition. Thus the motto is: diversity to reach harmony.

2.2. New Urbanism and Leon Krier

The New Urbanism started from a similar critic of the American zoned city and took the European city
in parts as a model, 14 but for the architects involved in Sociopólis as Steiner they went not far enough,
13F

but stayed to much connected to a façade centered thinking and in many cases did not abolish zoning
or the idea of the suburb. 15 14F

Actually the thinking of 'Guallart and friends' is much closer to the originally major influence on the
New Urbanism movement, which were the writings of Leon Krier, especially in regard to his ideas of
the revival of the old European town and his strong critics against zoning. 16 Guallart's critic of the 15F

"specialized American city, where the territory is functionally fragmented" and his demand that "each
neighbourhood will have to behave like a micro-city", 17 seem to be taken right out of one of Krier's
16F

articles. 18 When one reads Krier and compares only the headlines of his articles to the ideology of
17F

Sociopólis, it is astonishing, how identical the approaches are: 19 Articles by Krier as "Organic versus
18F

mechanical composition" , "The city within the city" , "Town and country" 22, "Critique of zoning" 23,
19F
20
20F
21
21F 2F

24 25
"Critique of industrialization" 23F and "Critique of the megastructural city" 24F bring up the same critics and
supposed solutions as the writings about the Sharing Tower and Sociopólis, only that at Sociopólis

13
Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla.
14
Katz, Peter, The New Urbanism: toward an architecture of community, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994.
15
Ibid.
16
Krier, Leon, "The Reconstruction of the European City", Architectural Design, No. 54, (Nov/Dec 1984), pp. 16-22.
17
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 24.
18
See Addendum 3.
19
It is thus not clear how it comes that Leon Krier is not mentioned at all by architects of Sociopólis. But if they mention – as
Steiner – New Urbanism one could presume that they have some knowledge of Krier's theories, too.
20
Krier, Leon, Houses, Palaces, Cities, Belvedere, Berlin-Tegel, 1980, pp. 110.
21
Ibid, pp.70. Compare to the neighbourhoods as micro-cities of Guallart.
22
Ibid, pp.30. Compare to the concept of "Rurban" by Guallart. See 2.9.
23
Ibid, pp. 32.
24
Ibid, pp. 36.
25
Ibid, pp. 20.
3
there are advanced with new technologies and the virtual component. Consequently also roots for the
historic enthusiasm of Guallart, Ito and others are already present in Krier's writings especially as he
points towards the medieval and Roman town. 26 25F

The prominent dealing with hybridization in Sociopólis' can also be seen as a connection to a historic
urban model, as mixed use is of course nothing new, as also Krier emphasized. 27 Actually it is very
26F

ancient and the mixed use movement was only returned by Krier and today Guallart – although in a
more sophisticated way – although their basic aim and composition has been there long before the
industrial revolution. Ancient towns of the Roman Empire or medieval towns of Northern Europe or the
Orient were all mixed used towns, as well in the micro view of buildings (think of the typical Roman
insula building with shops on the street level and different income housing in the floors above) as in
the macro urban view (although there were also certain strategies of zoning).
But although Krier and others built their basis for a return to the hybrid city on ancient models against
the Modernist zoned city, Guallart also argues that the architectural shift towards hybridization was
only possible through the digital age with its basic hybrid approach.

2.3. (File) Sharing

Maybe one could have begun this work with the term of Sharing, since this was chosen to be the
name of the project and seemingly it has major importance in the planning associations. Shared
spaces and hybrid use are interwoven with each other here. The hybrid functions are demanding a
sharing, since every building has something different to offer and only through sharing it with
inhabitants of other buildings, everybody can reach an effective usage. 28 Sharing, being also strongly
27F

connected to the social associative field, 29 is a basic feature also of other buildings in Sociopólis as
28F

for example Toyo Ito's project Apartments for the elderly, where "shared spaces and the terraces
have a specially important role" 30. 29F

And of course also shared spaces are nothing new, if we just think of the inner courtyard of Roman
times that was a meeting, working and living focus of all inhabitants surrounding it, who shared this
space.
But in Guallart's view only the digital age makes a real shared approach possible, since the virtual
world "allowed us to develop the idea of shared resources" 31. Guallart namely mentions file sharing in
30F

the style of Napster 32 and even quoted this to me via email as the main motivation behind the concept
31F

of the Sharing Tower. 33 The idea of internet file sharing is that a person anywhere in the world that is
32F

connected to a certain website allows others around the world to copy his digital files from him for

26
Jencks, Charles, “Post-Modernism and Eclectic Continuity”, Architectural Design, No. 57, (1/2 1987). See also 2.8. The
Middle Ages and Nostalgia.
27
Krier, Leon, Houses, Palaces, Cities, Belvedere, Berlin-Tegel, 1980, pp. 32.
28
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 23.
29
See 2.4.
30
Ito, Toyo, "Apartments for the elderly",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_toyo.
31
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 41.
32
See Addendum 4.
33
See Addendum 12.
4
free. Guallart takes the file sharing reference to create the concept of space sharing, which at the
same time also profits from the trend that some physical objects of our lives have been moved to the
virtual world (photo albums, folders, telephones etc.). For Guallart this shows that the "public is
prepared to give up part of their property so as to be able to do more things and be more efficient." 34 3F

For Guallart it is "hardly logical" 35 that every person should have all kind of dwelling objects (as
34F

washing machine, fridge, TV, etc.) and not to share it, since that way people can "enjoy more space"
and "lower the costs", 36 which mirrors the main principles in his approach: efficiency and rationality.
35F

However he does not relate to the morality or amorality of file sharing, since Western society still
protects creative property – even Napster has since been forbidden and closed. And even if this
would be legal – are people really giving up something from their digital property when they let others
use it as well? They have no actual damage from it. Can the digital code of a music file really be
compared to a physical kitchen when it comes to sharing it with another person?

2.4. Narkomfim Block and Social Housing

Coming from the theory of Sharing, Guallart tries a quite experimental implementation. The project
assumes that sharing is possible on a great scale. A person can live on a minimum private space for
its most basic needs as sleeping, dressing and hygiene, while sharing a much bigger space for all
other activities as eating, socializing, laundry, cooking, watching TV etc.. As an positive example for
this kind of sharing Guallart names communist housing in the 1920s in the USSR. 37 36F

From the description of large communal kitchens in quoted project he seems to talk of the Narkomfin
housing block by Moisei Ginzburg, which he affirmed by email. 38 The Narkomfin block (finished in
37F

1932) was one of the revolutionist masterpieces of Moisei Ginzburg – a Soviet constructivist - which
he prepared for quite some time and can be seen as a continuation of ideas he applied in the OSA
headquarters (1927). Ginzburg called the project an "experiment of new housing type, where
individual spaces are combined with a full range of socialized functions (dining room, rooms for rest,
kindergarten and day-care rooms, laundry, etc.)" 39. The Narkomfin building took this ideas to a greater
38F

scale of a 5 storey block so that "an enclosed walkway at the second level connects the housing to
the community building containing a kitchen and canteen, meeting and hobby rooms, and a
kindergarten." 40 It is shown that Ginzburg himself was inspired by workers' apartments projects of
39F

Ernst May and Grete Schütte-Lichotzky in Frankfurt am Main. 41 Reading this descriptions out of
40F

Soviet Russia of the 1930s next to the description about the Sharing Tower one could be confused
due to the similarities in terms and arguement. But there is an important conceptual difference:

34
Ibid.
35
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 39.
36
Ibid, p. 40.
37
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44.
38
See Addendum 12.
39
Souvremennia Arkhitektura, No. 4-5, (1927),p. 130. See also: Brumfield, William Craft & Ruble, Blair A., Russian Housing
in the Modern Age: Design and Social History, Woodrow Wilson Center, Cambridge, 1994, p. 103.
40
Brumfield & Ruble, Russian Housing in the Modern Age: Design and Social History, p. 108.
41
Ibid.
5
"Yet despite the radical form of the Narkofim block [...] Ginzburg remained aware that such a
commune could only be humanly successful if it was induced rather than imposed." 42 Guallart does 41F

not refer to any doubts or problems about the applicability of his project. But he does also not plan his
tower for the majority society, but for the marginal and socially weaker groups as young, old, low-
income and especially students and thus succeeds to avoid major critics, since such a concept could
most possibly be imagined as a kind of student dormitory or social housing. The whole project of
Sociopólis is thus also planned to operate on government rent-controlled 43 housing which again 42F

44
connects to the tradition of social housing and socialism. 43F Also the government directed social
building can be seen as more characteristic for the European attitude in opposition to the American
privatively oriented building.
One should also not forget the name of the urban master plan in general: Sociopólis. Not just the
master plan, but the separate projects integrate social programmes, as for example the project of
Toyo Ito, while for Greg Lynn "community" and "social" seem to be kind of magic words for his
planning. 45 And Guallart even calls the basis of his Sharing Tower the "foundation of the collective 46".
4F 45F

The book Sociopólis deals a lot with socially weak and margin groups and their housing and living
conditions, which according to Guallart represent together a large part of society and they take the
main role in Sociopólis architecture – again - in opposition to the traditional middle class and
traditional family in America. The idea of private property is of course strongly connected to the
capitalistic and liberal American idea, while the idea of sharing and communal property, or the blurring
out of the difference between private and public space as Guallart describes, 47 is of course a classical
46F

socialist feature. This tendency can reach quite totalitarian quotes as "It is the urban space of the
citizen, who knowingly plays their role in society, embedded in the social network of power." 48 And as 47F

communism referred to a new family, the approach of Sociopólis, too.

2.5. The New Family

Strongly connected to the socialist background is the relation to the family in Guallart's project. Gullart
agrees that Communism tried "to destroy the traditional family set-up" via it's shared housing projects
(Narkomfin) that he uses as references. 49 His architecture's aim is less to destroy the traditional
48F

family, but rather to offer fitting solutions for the in wide parts already destroyed the traditional family
of the European society: "The traditional family of two parents and one or more children now accounts
for less than 50% of households in many regions of Spain." But not just that this society has virtually

42
Ginzburg, Moisei, Style and Epoch, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1982, p. 7.
43
"…fulfilling a much-needed social function, making housing available at a controlled price to a great number of people."
http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm
44
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart.
45
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 74.
46
Ibid, p. 53.
47
"…middle ground between the private and the public ground", Ibid, p. 41.
48
Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, The new European city",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_steiner.
49
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44.
6
stopped to reproduce itself and have children, but also the relationships have changed. There are
unmarried couples, single mothers and elderly, students or other young singles, 50 that live 49F

unconnected to their families in single or communal apartments or dormitories. Guallart and other
Sociopólis architects want to offer housing solutions for the disintegrated 'post-family'.
And thus also this motivation draws a contrast to the typically American suburb home of a typical
traditional family. As the American suburb is shaped according to the ideal American suburb family, 51 50F

52
and the Soviet social block is shaped according to the ideal communist "family", 51F so too the Sharing
Tower is shaped according to the ideal family in Guallart's head, and this is the disintegrated
European "post-family" that – going one step further - is replaced by Guallart with the "Virtual Family",
"in which peoples of various generations who are not blood relatives behave to some extent as a
family, sharing resources or activities." 53 52F

2.6. The European City (Regionalism and Globalism)

Globalism with its interconnectedness of humans, resources, places, knowledge, etc. has created
new challenges and questions for contemporary architecture. In recent years different theories were
formulated on how architecture should position itself towards this challenge. Should it support a global
style or ideology? Should it support regionalist styles and particularistic tendencies? Should it connect
both? Should it be critical? Should everything be allowed and no more qualitative judgment be
allowed or even possible? A very profoundly discussion was presented by Alexander Tzonis in his
thoughts of an Critical Regionalism, emphasizing the adoption of local architectural features, but in a
way that does critically approach Regionalism as well as Globalism. 54 While others might favor a
53F

globally customer orientated "assimilated" architecture approach, using whatever means to satisfy the
economic needs laid out before the architect. This is a kind of uncritical capitalistic approach as
presented by Michael Speaks. 55 54F

Of course it can be expected that a thinking like in Sociopólis that tries to position itself against an
universalist approach of Modernism and modernist urbanism would oppose globalism - at least in the
form of an universalist globalism. And thus Guallart and similar thinking recent architects are returning
to a certain kind of regionalism. However they do not reject globalism, but see it as two developments
happening next to each other, while a developing global society needs in their view, regionalist
refuges. 56 Their ideal human is a cosmopolitan, but at the same time very locally rooted:
5F

50
"The project promotes the construction of housing that responds to the needs of the new types of family unit (young
people, the elderly, single-parent families, etc.)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm
51
"The family is crucial […] to the whole suburban way of life", Thorns, David C., Subrubia, MacGibbon & Kee, London,
1972, p. 87. See also: Gruenberg, Sidonie Matsner. "The Challenge of the New Suburbs.", Marriage and Family Living, No.
17/2, (May 1955), pp. 133-137.
52
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44.
53
Ibid, p. 19.
54
Tzonis, Alexander and Lefaivre, Liane, "Why Critical Regionalism today?", Architecture and Urbanism, No. 236, (May
1990).
55
Speaks, Michael, "Design Intelligence and the New Economy", Architectural Record (January 2002).
56
"…, we travel to distant places by high-speed transport systems, but at the same time we affirm the quality of the local…",
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 39.
7
"Faced with an increasingly uniform global society, we need to recognize the specific cultural and
landscape values of each territory as fundamental to the quality of life of the people who live there
and to asserting a distinct identity that can bestow a competitive advantage." 57 56F

Thus here is a connection of regionalism while keeping up the awareness that globalism can't be
redone, (similar to Tzonis) while at the same time a design relativism is taken (similar to Speaks), but
still preferring a socialist approach against a capitalistic one.
In Sociopólis and the Sharing Tower the local identity is European and as mentioned before many
features of the project position themselves against a projected American identity. 58 Also 57F

characterization of Sociopolis as a "pedestrian city" 59 heads in the same direction.

58F

Guallart does not reach a critical deepness as Tzonis in his regionalist approach. As will be shown, he
openly and uncritically connects to medieval European themes in a tradition of a Leon Krier. 60 Guallart 59F

is critical of an universalist ideology like Modernism, but he is uncritical with a sanctification of

diversity. The whole project speaks diversity and hybridization in any kind of view, and thus connects
much more to a regionalist romanticism that is however globally interlinked and not nationalistically
hostile to other cultures. He favors a kind of all welcoming relativism with many regionalisms living
side by side, and that he see as its international potential.

2.7. Conservation
It is striking to what lengths the architecture of Guallart and other architects of Sociopólis go, in order
to protect and conserve existing conditions. May it be the surrounding of the construction sites, nature
or historic landmarks.
In his project of Denia Quarry, the "conservation and protection of the castle" and "the protection of
the Hort de Morand, which contains the remains of the Roman town" 61 are named as two of the five
60F

basic principles or the project. The protective and historic themes take also a very prominent place in
the description of the Sociopólis masterplan, where a major care is taken for the "maximum protection
for the existing huerta (one of the traditional agricultural zones surrounding the city of Valencia)
irrigated with waters from the River Turia by way of channels originally dug by the Arabs some 800
years ago". 62
61F

This is no coincidence. The architecture of Guallart & Co. has a strong aversion to interference in the
existing. This becomes such a major concept in their thinking that "to ensure the continuity of the
natural networks" they develop the whole new term and approach of "dis-dense" ("a city that is

57
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart.
58
See Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 17.
59
Ibid, p. 39.
60
See Krier, Leon, "The Reconstruction of the European City", Architectural Design, No. 54, (Nov/Dec 1984), pp. 16-22.
61
Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. Note
the Roman connection.
62
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Master plan (2005-2007)",
http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm.
8
discontinues"). 63 Thus the principle of conserving the existing and the rejection of any intervention
62F

becomes one of the basic pillars of this architectural thinking.

Chinchilla summarizes their rejection of "the kind of aggressive, steamroller urbanism that is based on
autarchic structures which impose themselves on the context with a logic external to it." 64 63F

Here it also becomes clear that the reasons for design should be a kind of 'internal logic', something
immanent to the project that will lead the architectural process, not certain positivistic or universalist
'outer' approaches. It is a kind of relativism that tries to take its design reasons out of the project
itself. 65 It should only be noted that in the rejection of a precasted ideology, and positivistic planning
64F

as in Modernism, 66 they also distance themselves here from socialism – being a positivistic ideology
65F

by itself -, which otherwise very much influences Sociopólis and the Sharing Tower.

2.8. The Middle Ages and Nostalgia

But this way of conservatism is not only a rejection against imposing a positivistic design, it also
expresses its admiration for history, especially medieval history. It seems strange, but many of the
architects connected to this "City for the future" take their very ideas and triggers from medieval
models. Guallart himself explicitly compares the Sharing Tower to "the style of a medieval tower".
Toyo Ito describes how the idea for his project in Sociopólis came up: "I was greatly impressed by
Vincente's images of medieval gardens" and portrays medieval imagery. 67 And as I asked Guallart via
6F

email, what role he things that medieval references have for his design, he answered me that "the
medieval times were very social. The people made cathedrals as a share icon, payed by the city.
There were craftsmen designing and making things by themselves. I very much like the medieval
times." 68 67F

I think that his statement fits perfectly in what has been detected so far. This architecture longs for the
medieval times, since they connect a kind of conservative, social image with a European identity,
while it stands against Modernism and values associated with industrialism. It is a kind of romantic
looking backwards while using the most modern tools. Also landmarks (as the Cathedral) are a
positive value in Guallart's Urbanism, 69 as he for example describes in the Denia project. 70 In
68F 69F

71
Sociopólis he calls for protecting certain existing buildings and landscapes "like shrines". 70F

But not only historic themes and site conservatism are resulting from the negation of Modernism and
Positivism, but also a strong emphasize on the design patterns of nature and a strong foible for floral

63
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 26.
64
Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla.
65
How this should be done is nearer discussed in 2.10 Responsive Architecture.
66
The explicit rejection of Modernism can also be seen, as Chinchilla names in high favor Latour, B., We Have Never Been
Modern, Prentice-Hall, 1993.
67
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 211.
68
I corrected the grammar and spelling a bit. See Addendum 12.
69
Which again is a strong feature in Leon Krier thinking, too.
70
Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm.
71
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 26.
9
patterns. Fittingly to the floral foible Guallart expressed also an affection for (medieval) craftsmanship,
which can be seen as a slight connection to the Arts and Crafts movement.

2.9 Urban Landscape and Natural Influences

A strong connection to nature can be seen throughout the Sociopólis project and throughout other
projects by Guallart. The master plan of Sociopólis is build around the idea of a hybrid agriculture-city
area. Guallart calls this "Rurban" (Rural+Urban): Here the idea of agriculture and conversation are
combined, so that existing farm houses and farmlands are preserved and the city is build in their gaps
(see dis-dens in 2.7). Thus the existing agricultural structure becomes the trigger for the planning of
the whole are. 72 Not just the garden houses of Toy Ito have a dominant green theme, 73 but also the
71F 72F

project of MVRDV in Sociopólis was explicitly planned "in response to the groves of fruit trees in the
surrounding area". 74 The project by Greg Lynn is called Onion Blossom, 75 while Lynn is referring to it
73F 74F

as "floral architecture" 76 and an "agricultural space", while "the whole project really derives from
75F

agricultural, vegetable products of this kind" 77 And finally the Sharing Tower by Guallart – a project so
76F

obviously without (real or façade) greenery is described by Guallart as deriving from an analogy to
nature, as he seems to refer to a tree-like net: "planned as nature, from bigger shared to smaller
private spaces". 78 Dietmar Steiner names this interwoven natural and city elements the "Urban
7F

Landscape", which when it reaches its theoretical peak "the town itself is subsequently seen as
landscape" while the aim should be "integrating the qualities of the countryside, of agricultural land, in
the town itself". 79 And again Leon Krier's thoughts could be placed alongside: "A charter for the
78F

reconstruction of the city is the necessary complement to a charter for the reconstruction of the
countryside". 80 And this seems to be the correct consequence for an architecture that takes its
79F

"ideology" and Data out of its environment: It becomes like the environment. And if this architecture is
very impressed by nature and natural forms and takes nature as its model, 81 it should only be logically
80F

that such an architecture would in the end design its cities as woods and meadows, hills and lakes –
they would build nature itself. And that is exactly what happens in the most recent projects of Guallart
(and others). In the Denia project, which Guallart fittingly names "Howtomakeamountain", he finds
nice words to express that he actually imitates nature: "The geological structure of the hill, on the

72
"Within the neighbourhood has four well-conserved historic farmhouses, and around these will be the focal points for
‘urban farm’ zones cared for by the local residents.", Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Master plan (2005-2007)",
http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm.
73
See Addendum 6.
74
MVRDV, "Huerta Tower",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_mvrdv. See Addendum 7.
75
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 67. See Addendum 8.
76
Ibid, p. 71.
77
Ibid, p. 73.
78
Ibid, p. 52.
79
.Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, The new European city",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_steiner.
80
Economakis, Richard (ed.), Leon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967 – 1992, Academy Editions, London, 1992, p.
16.
81
There even could be a discussion started here in which degree the data architecture of Sociopólis with its admiration of
nature as its model can be be seen in connection to Classical Greek design…
10
micro, the medium and the macro scales, offers us rules with which to put forward a mineralogical
system that will guide its functioning."82 81F

The best example however may be the "Re-Naturalization of Territory" by Guallart: Giant organic
formed structures appear in the city as artificial mountains and woods and landmarks and cathedrals
at the same time, what he calls "natural-artificial". 83 Asked by me via email what in Guallart's view is
82F

the connection between Data architecture and nature, he answered that "Nature is a way of Data". 84 83F

That organic forms and a mimesis of nature is a symptom not only of Guallart or Sociopolis, but of
data architecture in general, can be seen for example in the Gwanggyo City Center designed by
MVRDV, 85 whose data approach is notorious. The project looks very much as Guallart's Re-
84F

Naturalization of Territory.

2.10. Responsive Architecture

Chinchilla summarized the nature of the here presented "Sociopólis architecture": "Understanding,
ordering and structuring the territory is a matter of revealing the hidden laws that nature, logistics and
sociology have embedded in the environment". 86 This is – in my view - the belief of the Guallart and
85F

other Data architects in a nutshell. A positivistic, formalist, artistic, ideological or any other approach
coming from the architect are rejected. The only way of 'planning' can only be to collect data that will
determine the design process. But this data is again not coming from the inside of the architect's brain
or other sources, but from the project itself, from its site, its history, its people etc. And it is believed
that when one only decodes this hidden secret plan for the project, one actually reaches a kind of
objective and optimal design. Thus one can see this approach as a kind of objective design out of
relativism and particularism. Everything is seen as determined by its circumstances and
understanding the circumstance and designing according to it is seen as the correct way, while an
outer impulse or a directing human intellect – not to say the word 'genius' – is firmly rejected.
The term Responsive Architecture was coined by Nicholas Negroponte in the late 1960s, when he
proposed that architecture would benefit from the integration of computing power into built spaces and
structures, and that better performing, more rational buildings would be the result. 87 Since then 86F

Responsive Architecture stayed more a label for architecture that knew to react to its environment
(especially light, temperature and wind inputs). But the feature of an architecture that is responsive
not only to real physical inputs, but also responsive to natural data during the planning and design
process is in my opinion what can be found in Sharing Tower and Sociopólis and in a lot of
contemporary architecture that is designed according to a data-approach.

82 82
Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. See
Addendum 9.
83
Guallert, Vincente, "The Re-Naturalisation of Territory", http://www.guallart.com/11re-naturalisation/default.htm. See
Addendum 10.
84
See Addendum 10.
85
See Addendum 11.
86 86
Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla.
87
Negroponte, Nicholas, Soft Architecture Machines, MIT Press, 1975.
11
3. Conclusion
Most strikingly, an architecture that declares of itself to be the architecture of the future - being a
political correct architecture - and is proud to have found a kind of 'objective' design approach by a
strong nature and environment responsive data-approach, has some quite nostalgic, radical and
conservative features on a closer look. It praises the medieval Europe, Soviet communism and
mother nature as architectural utopias that should be imitated. At the same time it becomes clear that
this approach is neither future orientated nor objective, but sanctifies environmental features to which
it can be responsive to prevent any conscious and ideological design decision. The ideology here is
the absence of ideology – as it should be for a good relativism. But at the same time the architects by
themselves prove that even for them a pure responsive design isn't possible and again and again the
architects present design triggers, although they might try to make them as 'responsive' and 'natural'
as possible as for example the onion in Greg Lyyn's design. The question can be asked, if the age of
digital knowledge and virtual spaces was really essential for an approach that basically goes back to
the anti-industrial theories of a Leon Krier? In nearly all projects the actual connection to the internet
world is quite thin and their mentioning seems to be more to justify a 'future' characteristic of the
project, than being a real pillar of the design of the project. Of course the digital world saves physical
space, so that a more "efficient" 88 housing as in the Sharing Tower becomes more probable, but
87F

Guallart himself makes a perfect distinction between virtual sharing and physical sharing and sets it
equal without explaining how this can be done in reality. 89 In my view Guallart's approach fails here in
8F

the same point, socialistic design failed, too: In a insufficient research on the human nature (which
should actually have been expected from a data architect). Furthermore I do not agree with Guallart,
that blind trust in diversion will lead to a balance 90 and that the imitation of the natural world is the
89F

highest level of design possible. An architecture that sanctifies nature and a relativistic automatic
responsive behavior has no real values attached to it and will in the end not divide between 'good' and
'bad' design. Everything is possible as long as it is responsive. But when a cook throws everything
into the soup that he finds in the kitchen, it does not have to be tasteful. And thus the school of data
architecture or responsive architecture even today departs from – in my view - important
achievements, as the value of quality over quantity and the critic of the ornament and propagate even
in Sociopólis already baroque ornaments. 91 And finally I would summarize that an architecture that
90F

sees (relativistic) nature as its perfect model, ultimately believes that nature and the world is a perfect
model. I can't see that nature or the world of today is perfect, but that much should be bettered –
especially by architects – and you can't better a world when you just copy it.

88
See Guallart's definition in 2.3.
89
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 67.
90
See 2.3.
91
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 79.
12
4. Bibliography
• Brumfield, William Craft & Ruble, Blair A., Russian Housing in the Modern Age: Design and
U

Social History, Woodrow Wilson Center, Cambridge, 1994.

U

• Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue",

http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chin
U

chilla. U

• Economakis, Richard (ed.), Leon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967 – 1992, Academy
U U

Editions, London, 1992.

• Ginzburg, Moisei, Style and Epoch, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1982.
U U

• Gruenberg, Sidonie Matsner. "The Challenge of the New Suburbs.", Marriage and Family U

Living, No. 17/2, (May 1955).

U U U

• Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)",

http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm.
U U

• Guallart, Vincente, "MediaMountains&Architecture",

http://www.guallart.com/04mediaMountainsAndArchitecture/default.htm.
U U

• Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation",

http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_g
U

uallart. U

• Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Master plan (2005-2007)",

http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm.
U U

• Guallart, Vincente, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum,
U U

Wien, March 2006.

• Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Sharing Tower (2004-2007)",
http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolistower/default.htm.
U U

• Ito, Toyo, "Apartments for the elderly",

http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_to
U

yo. U

• Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961.
U U

• Jencks, Charles, “Post-Modernism and Eclectic Continuity”, Architectural Design, No. 57, (no U U U U

1/2 1987)
• Katz, Peter, The New Urbanism: toward an architecture of community, McGraw-Hill, New
U U

York, 1994.
• Krier, Leon, "The Reconstruction of the European City", Architectural Design, No. 54, U U U U

(Nov/Dec 1984), pp. 16-22.

• Krier, Leon, Houses, Palaces, Cities, Belvedere, Berlin-Tegel, 1980.
U U

• Latour, B., We Have Never Been Modern, Prentice-Hall, 1993.

U U

13
• MVRDV, "Huerta Tower",
http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_m
U

vrdv. U

• Negroponte, Nicholas, Soft Architecture Machines, MIT Press, 1975.

U U

• Speaks, Michael, "Design Intelligence and the New Economy", Architectural Record (January
U U

2002).
• Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, European City of the Future", Sociopolis: Project of a City for the
U

future, Ed. Vincente Guallart, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum, Wien, March 2006.

U

• Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, The new European city",

http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_stei
U

ner. U

• Thorns, David C., Subrubia, MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1972.

U U

• Tzonis, Alexander and Lefaivre, Liane, "Why Critical Regionalism today?", Architecture and
U

Urbanism, No. 236, (May 1990).

U U U

14
Addendum

1.
The Sharing Tower, Vicente Guallart Floor with colored shared space.

2.
Sociopólis, Master Plan by Vicente Guallart

3.
Urban planning according to Leon Krier.
4.
Symbol of Napster.

5.
Narkofim Social Apartment Block, Moisei Ginzburg, pictures from the 1930s

6.
"Garden Houses" (in Sociopólis), Toyo Ito.1

7.
"Huearta Tower", (in Sociopólis), MVRDV.

1
It should be noted that Toyo Ito seems to have pulled back this design from the official Sociopólis website (although it has
been published in the Sociopólis book) and replaced it with another project. At other places he seems to have eliminated all
records of this project, too.
8.
"Onion Blossom" in Sociopólis), Greg Lynn.

9.
"Howtomakeamountain", Vincente Guallart

10.
"The re-naturalisation of territory", Vincente Guallart.
11.
"Gwanggyo City Center", MVRDV.

12. Email exchange with Vincente Guallart

Con fecha 10/8/2009, "Ulrich Becker" <u.j.becker@googlemail.com>
escribió:
>Dear Dr. Vincente Guallart,
>
>I am an architecture student from Jerusalem and did a presentation one
>several of your projects and to your architecture in general for our course
>"contemporary theories in architecture" and I am right now writing my
>seminary work on your project "Sharing Tower" with a German student.
>My work tries to catch a view on the motifs, backgrounds, triggers and
>ideologies of your architecture and especially the Sharing Tower. The work
>is written around an associative field of all kind of influences you name or
>we see that could be important for your progamme.
>
>I would be very interested and highly delighted by a short answer from you
>to the following short questions:
>
>- What would you name the main motivation behind the concept of the Sharing
>Tower?

I USED THE CONCEPT THAT IS USING THE POELPE IN INTERNMET SHARING MUSIC,
AND PICTURES. I APLIED THIS CONCEPT TO THE PHISICAL SPACE.

>- In what form was the computerized DATA age essential for the design, or
>would it have been possible with "ordinary" architectural methods?
OF COURSE. THIS IS A QUESTION OF ORGANIZATION OF THE SPCE. IN THE
BUILDING NARKOFIN, MADE IN RUSSIA IN THE 20 THEY HAVE GLOBAL KITCHENS.
I'M NOT DOING A COMUNICT BUILDING BUT AN INFORMATIONAL BUILDING.

>- In what form did communist design and socialist ideas influced the
>building?

COMUNIST WANT TO DESTROY THE FAMILY. I CREATE INSTANT FAMILY RELATIONS

WITH PEOPLE NOT RELATED WITH THEIR BLOOD. IF YOU HAVE A BUS WITH 40
PEOPLE THIS IS A PUBCLI BUS. IF YOU HAVE A CAR WITH 4 PEOPLE THIS CAN BE
A SHARED CAR. IN ORDER TO SHARE THING IN THE PHISICAL WORLD IS CRUCIAL
THE NUMBER OF USERS.

>- Do you see your design with its social and sharing components as a
>destinct European approach or should this be an example for the whole world?

I'M PRESETING THIS PROJECTS IN NEW YORK CITIY IN SEPTMEBER. SHARING IS

GLOBAL.

>- Do you see your design more as an universalist (everybody should design
>this way) or relativist (everybody should design his way) approach?

THE NATURE IS GLOBAL AND SPECIFIC SIMULTANEAOSLY. DESIGN SHOULD BE THE

SAME.
>- Would you say that your design is an objective design that dervies
>necessarily from the data research? Is the motto "research in order to
>act" mean the the research shows in which way should be acted or is it just
>a tool for a free and creative architect to design?

WE NEED TO THINK WHAT TO DO BEFORE TO THINK HOW TO DO.

>- What role play historic and especially medieval connections for the design
>(you name the "medieval tower"). In what way has the medieval tower
>influenced you?

THE MEDIEVAL TIMES WAS VERY SOCIAL. THE POEPLE MADE CATEDRALS AS A SAHRE
ICON, PAYED BY THE CITY. THERE WERE CRAFMAN DESIGNING AND MAKING THINGS
BY THEMSELVES. I LIOKE VERY MUCH THE MEDIEVAL TIMES.
>- How do you see the connection between nature and data in your design?

NATURE IS A WAY OF DATA,.

>- In what way were the works "Shopping" by Rem Koolhaas and "Las Vegas" by
>Robert Venturi important for your way to start design from Data?

ZERO.

>Sorry for the many questions, but I would also very happy, if you could
>answer only to few of them!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.

VICENTE GUALLART